Federal gencies are going to be busy in 2014 meeting deadlines for the Obama administration’s open data goals of having datasets catalogued and available in extensible, machine-readable formats. By Nov. 30, 2014, agencies are tasked with providing a data inventory as well as a road map for describing and publishing data.

The General Services Administration hosts a repository of how agencies plan to create, describe, and disseminate enterprise data inventories. The government-wide template for getting to the finish line includes a quarterly level of deliverables, which varies slightly from agency to agency. Some agencies have detailed schedules, others list overall goals, and a few appear to be behind the curve – lacking a 2014 action plan.

The final goal is the same for all agencies – a completed inventory of datasets to be delivered to the Office of Management and Budget. Along the way, agencies will be expanding and opening data inventories, working on methodologies to integrate open data goals into the data creation process, and developing metadata standards for agency datasets. The public will be invited to submit feedback on what kind of metadata would help improve access and availability of government data assets.